


Without You

by Imagination_Parade



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s01e10 And the Loom of Fate, F/F, First Kiss, Friendship/Love, Kissing, Magic, Spells & Enchantments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-09-07 19:19:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8813035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imagination_Parade/pseuds/Imagination_Parade
Summary: In a world where Cassandra became the Librarian and Eve became a Guardian 10 years earlier in time, Eve still struggles with Cassandra's exploration of magic.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A little bit of a different story from me, I know, but I hope you'll give it a chance!
> 
> I've wanted Magic Cassandra since "Loom of Fate" first aired, and now that it's finally playing out, I've been thinking about how Baird is so eager to get the boys to be more like their sole Librarian selves, but she's still pretty against Cassandra using magic, which was the main aspect of the depiction we saw of Cassandra as the sole Librarian. Of course, thinking about Baird's disapproval of Cassandra + magic in our timeline made me think of the universe we saw in "Loom of Fate," where Librarian Cassandra coyly smiled at our world's Baird and said her Eve never did approve, either, and then I just wanted to write it (and, come on, we all know they were totally lovers in that universe.)
> 
> This story isn't meant to be strictly chronological but instead cover many years of their time together as Librarian & Guardian.

The girlish laughter that filled the other room turned into a piercing shriek, and Eve was sure she’d lost her. What had either of them been thinking, letting her play (letting her _duel_ ) with an anthropomorphic sword, even if she _was_ the Librarian?

Eve was on her feet in a flash, desperate to get to the young woman who’d been chosen to lead this vast expanse of books and magic, but a blue glow filled the room before she could get very far, the cerulean light too bright to get any further into the Library.

“ _Cassandra_!” she called. She didn’t get an answer.

Cassandra Cillian had been the Librarian for 10 months and 23 days; Eve Baird had been her Guardian for 10 months and 22 days. Cassandra was a delight, and Eve loved her. She was, in many ways, a walking tragedy, but sunshine always sparkled in her eyes, even after crashing to the floor, her synesthesia amplified beyond her brain’s capacity, and everything, _everything_ , was more exciting than the last thing she’d discovered. Her energy was infectious, and she was quite possibly the most brilliant person Eve had ever met, but sometimes – sometimes Eve didn’t understand how the Library could have chosen _her_. She had seen the list of candidates. Some of them would have made for really out there choices – a 15-year-old thief from Australia? _Really_? – but there were so many pages and pages of possible Librarians from around the world, an entire book of well-educated, worldly, grown-up candidates, yet the building had chosen 20-year-old Cassandra Cillian. Terminally ill Cassandra Cillian. A girl who’d barely seen outside of her parents’ or her hospital’s restrictive walls.

When Eve reached the Library, she found Cassandra on the floor, clutching onto the edge of a table with both hands. She looked like she was struggling to catch her breath, sapphire baubles circled her forehead, and Eve’s stomach felt like it had internally folded in upon itself. She gasped Cassandra’s name, rushed over to the table, and lowered herself to the floor, facing the redhead.

“Are you okay?” Eve asked.

Cassandra nodded, grasping Eve’s hand with one of hers for further stability. “Dizzy,” she said. “I feel dizzy. I…I feel weird.”

“What did you do?” Eve asked. “Excalibur…”

She glanced down and saw Excalibur on the floor right next to Cassandra, the same sapphire baubles dancing around its polished metal. The sword Cassandra had been using to duel Excalibur, however, lie on a table across the aisle.

“ _Cassandra_ ,” Eve said again, more sternly this time. She dropped Cassandra’s hand, and it traveled back up to the edge of the table. “What did you do?”

“You know what I did,” Cassandra breathed, her voice deep, her gaze fixed upon Eve’s worried face.

They’d discussed the possibility of Excalibur healing her, of course. How could they not, once they discovered that was an option just a few short months into their tenure at the Library? But Eve had said no. That was too much raw magic. Magic never turned out to be as simple as it seemed, and they didn’t know enough to know what that could do to her.

“Cassandra!” Eve cried again. “How could you…we don’t know what the consequences are going to be.”

“I don’t care about the consequences,” Cassandra said.

“We agreed that you were not going to do this,” Eve reminded her.

“Too late now…” Cassandra taunted, under her breath.

Eve sent a steely gaze in her direction, pretended not to hear her, and took a deep breath to calm both her frustration with the Librarian and the fear of losing her in a very different sort of way that she suspected was about to take up permanent residence in her abdomen. At the same time, the blue baubles faded away in a flash of light, and with one short moan, Cassandra removed her hands from the side of the table and sat up straight on her knees, seemingly good as new.

“I never should’ve trusted you with Excalibur alone,” Eve said. “We said _no magic_.”

“No, _you_ said!” Cassandra said. “ _You_ said! We found a cure, and then _you_ said I couldn’t have it!”

“Is that how you see this?” Eve said. “Cassandra, I’m trying to protect you. It’s my job to protect you from this stuff. Magic is unpredictable and dangerous, and we have no idea what…”

“ _I had to_!” Cassandra let out a heartbreaking cry, tears springing to her eyes. “You saw the MRI two weeks ago, Eve. It’s getting bigger. It was…it was getting bigger.”

“We use magic when we need to to fix _magical_ problems,” Eve reminded her. “That’s not a magical problem.”

“That doesn’t mean it couldn’t have a magical solution,” Cassandra said, her voice somehow firm amidst the sniffles. She shook her head furiously as if to further prove her point.

“Cassandra…” Eve started again.

“I had to,” Cassandra repeated, letting herself go and allowing the tears building up in her eyes to stream down her rosy cheeks. “I had to. I don’t _care_ what it did. I don’t _care_ what it’ll do, as long as it did what it was supposed to do. I don’t care about…I had to, Eve. I had to.”

“Okay,” Eve said softly. As soon as she saw Cassandra’s genuine desperation, most of her anger faded away, and, truth be told, it was done, and getting mad wouldn’t change that, so instead, she held her arms out to Cassandra. Cassandra, without hesitation, fell into them and held on to Eve tightly. Her tears dripped onto Eve’s slender neck, and Cassandra found comfort in the familiar scent of Eve’s hair. Eve rubbed Cassandra’s back to soothe her and whispered, “Whatever happens, it’s okay. We’ll deal with it together.”

“We will?” Cassandra asked, pulling back to look her in the eye.

Eve’s lips curled into a soft smile. “Yeah, Librarian,” she said. “You and me - we’re a team, aren’t we?”

Cassandra returned her smile and nodded, leaning back in briefly to brush a kiss against Eve’s cheek. She sat down on Eve’s side and let her head fall against her shoulder. Eve’s arm wrapped behind her back.

“Still dizzy? Are you okay?” Eve asked.

“I’m okay,” Cassandra confirmed with a shrug. “You’re just comfortable.”

Eve snickered. She took a moment to process their new reality and asked, “So how will we know if it really worked?”

 

The brain tumor was gone, that much was obvious as the headaches and the fainting spells and the nosebleeds that almost made Eve pick Cassandra up and march her right back to that hospital she broke out of when the Library’s invitation letter found her there stopped almost immediately. The tumor was gone, but something else was different. Eve knew she was no longer going to lose her Librarian to science. Magic saved her. But Eve was beginning to think that magic might also destroy her.

Cassandra held a power that she didn’t have before. Eve noticed it. Cassandra noticed, too. A door flew open before Cassandra had barely touched it. Cassandra read a spell out loud from an ancient book, testing the old, foreign words on her tongue, and it worked. She looked a little awestruck (in a good way, not the horrified way that Eve would prefer) every time something happened, and Eve’s job suddenly got harder.

Before Excalibur, she would find Cassandra running through the aisles of the Library, checking out the artifacts, the portraits of past Librarians, and the potions tucked behind books. She’d find her slipping away to museums around the world to check out prototypes and scientific legends. Sometimes she’d even sit by the Clippings Book, silently willing it to give her and Eve another adventure, because as much as Cassandra loved exploring things she had only dreamed of before the Library, she always liked it more when Eve was right there with her. After Excalibur, though, Eve found Cassandra in corners of the Library doing spells at all hours of the day.

“Cassandra!” Eve called one day, wandering down the darkened aisles of the Library’s ancient magic section. She hadn’t seen her for a little while and thought a girls’ lunch out might be in order.

She didn’t get any response from her Librarian, but she started hearing faint whispers in a distinctly familiar voice. Eve crept closer, following the Latin words, until she found Cassandra leaning against a bookshelf, a large, worn book spread out against her lap.

“Cassandra?” she said again.

“Eve!” she said. “Hi. What’s up?”

Eve looked her Librarian up and down and said, “Weren’t you wearing that yesterday? Have you been here since yesterday afternoon?”

“What?” Cassandra asked. She grabbed her phone, looked at the display, and started laughing the kind of delirious laugher that only comes after too many hours without sleep. “I guess I have.”

“What are you doing?” Eve asked, sitting down beside her.

“ _Well_ ,” Cassandra said. She threw the spell book (and herself) across Eve’s lap, exhaustion getting to her now that Eve had smacked her in the face with the reality of how long she’d been sitting there. Eve’s arm naturally fell around her waist and grabbed one end of the book. “I’m learning some of the basic spells of magic. I thought these might be useful on the cases the Clippings Book sends us on.”

“What kind of spells?” Eve asked skeptically.

“Nothing too scary, I promise,” Cassandra said, shooting her a look that said she knew Eve disapproved. “There’s a locating spell, a reconstruction spell – I guess if something we recover is too eroded to properly decipher…or maybe if something we need gets destroyed…”

Eve closed the book and looked at the cover. “ _Merlin_? Cassandra, you’re reading _Merlin’s_ spell book?”

“Wh…don’t you turn to the experts when you’re learning something new?”

“Cassandra…” Eve warned.

Cassandra pulled her lips into a cute pout and looked up at her Guardian. “You worry too much, Eve.”

She would tell her no spells, but Eve was pretty sure the time for that had past. Cries of _no magic_ before Excalibur had fallen on deaf ears; orders of _no spells_ would work no better. Aside from the Librarian’s stubborn, headstrong nature, Eve was also pretty sure her chemistry was different. A few weeks after the sword had touched her forehead, a few weeks filled with exploration and more magic than Eve thought she would ever see, she’d given Cassandra an improvised MRI with a tool found in the Library, and while there was no tumor to be found, her brain had sparkled like a Christmas tree. Cassandra had giggled in enchantment and relief, and Eve’s anxiety had increased.

Excalibur had changed her. Or Excalibur had unlocked something they didn’t know she had. Eve briefly wondered if that’s why the Library had chosen her over everyone else, but no matter what had happened when Excalibur’s magic encapsulated Cassandra, there was no turning back now.

Eve followed Cassandra into the study with their desks, the card catalog, and their magic door. Cassandra kept going, heading for her bedroom within the Library. Eve turned and found Judson in the mirror.

“Are you alright, Eve?” Judson asked as Eve pulled a stool up to the mirror, settling in for a chat.

“She’s doing magic, Judson,” Eve said.

“I know,” Judson revealed.

“Should I be worried?” she asked.

“I think if you weren’t, you wouldn’t be a very good Guardian,” Judson replied honestly.

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Eve sighed.

 

The Back Door rumbled as Librarian and Guardian stumbled back into the Library. Cassandra’s arm was wrapped around Eve’s shoulder, and Eve helped her walk on an ankle that she probably shouldn’t be putting any pressure on. Cassandra stumbled a bit, and Eve’s grasp on her waist tightened.

“ _Ow_ ,” Cassandra whimpered every few steps.

“You’re getting no sympathy from me, Librarian,” Eve muttered.

“You’re still mad,” Cassandra realized.

“You put a spell on me,” Eve said. They reached a table and separated, Cassandra leaning on the polished wood for support as they turned to face each other.

“For a good reason!” Cassandra argued.

“You put a spell on me _while I was asleep_.”

“Well, I knew you wouldn’t let me do it if you were awake,” Cassandra replied.

“You put a spell on me while I was asleep and then _you got hurt_ ,” Eve finished.

Cassandra groaned and threw her head back in a very juvenile way. “I’m _fine_!” she nearly yelled. “And I stand by what I did.”

“You can’t put a _protection spell_ on your Guardian!” Eve argued, nearly laughing at the absurdity of the young woman’s actions.

“Why not?” Cassandra replied in a heated tone. Her leg twitched, and Eve almost laughed. It was if Cassandra was going to stomp her foot in defiance before remembering she was injured halfway through the motion. “You don’t have anyone to guard you.”

“Because _I_ have to protect _you_ ,” Eve said. “It’s not in my job description to be protected, and when I step in front of you to take the hit, and the magic deflects off of me and sends _you_ flying into the cave wall, we have a problem!”

“I can defend myself against magic!” Cassandra cried. “Excalibur made sure of that.”

“Sometimes I worry that Excalibur put you in more danger than that tumor did,” Eve said honestly.

“Oh, _come on_ ,” Cassandra said. “There’s _no way_ that’s possible.”

“Is it not?” Eve challenged. “You shouldn’t even be doing magic like this.”

“Why not? I have something no other Librarian ever has, Eve. I have my brain _and_ I have magic,” she said. “I’m not going to be just another number on the list of Librarians who die.”

“I’m not worried about losing a Librarian; I’m worried about losing _you_!” Eve exclaimed. Cassandra looked a little taken aback by her admission, and Eve softened her voice as she said, “You mean a lot to me, Cassandra, and not just because I’m your Guardian.”

“And you think I’m not worried about you?” Cassandra countered. “Why do you think I put that spell on you? You’re always doing dangerous things, like jumping in front of dragons for me. I can handle a dragon, Eve.”

“Oh, I beg to differ. Not yet,” Eve said. “You’ve only been the Librarian for a year.”

“What difference does that make? You’ve only been a Guardian for a year! “ Cassandra replied. “And that dragon was a baby.”

“Cassandra, it is _my job_ to protect you,” Eve repeated. “That is why I’m here.”

“And have you ever stopped to consider that maybe I won’t be able to do _my_ job if _you’re_ not here? I have to learn magic – I have to be better – to keep you here with me,” Cassandra cried, her eyes beginning to glisten with tears left unshed.

The room grew quiet upon Cassandra’s last argument. They let the silence hang in the air for a few moments before Cassandra took a steadying breath and exhaled on a sigh.

“I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t here,” Cassandra said softly. “You mean a lot to me, too.”

The room grew silent again. The women in the center of it stood at the table, staring at each other, their words and the feelings behind them hanging between them. Whether it was a conscious decision or not, Eve wasn’t sure, but she took a step forward and reached for Cassandra’s waist, going in for a kiss. Cassandra gasped a little and jumped at Eve’s touch.

“What are you doing?” Cassandra asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Eve replied with a grin.

“Oh, um, well… _yes_ , but I haven’t really…” Cassandra stuttered.

“Kissed another woman?” Eve asked. “It’s okay; I haven’t, either.”

“They pulled me out of school when I was fifteen, and then I spent most of the years before the Library letter came in hospitals,” Cassandra said.

“Well…I know, but what does that have to do with…” Eve started.

“ _Anyone_ ,” Cassandra whispered. “I haven’t kissed anyone.”

“Oh,” Eve realized. “ _Cassandra_.”

“Unless you count that ruffian who kissed me on that case, which I _don’t_ , because he was gross, and I did not consent to that, so I refuse to count that as a my first kiss,” Cassandra rambled.

Eve took another half-step forward and held Cassandra’s cheek in the palm of her hand. “What about this?” she asked softly. “Do you want this?”

“Yes,” Cassandra whispered. She let out a little apprehensive giggle and said, “I’m just nervous. What if I’m bad at it?”

Eve laughed a little, too, and said, “You won’t be.”

Their lips touched, Eve’s meeting Cassandra’s in a soft collision, but once they were together, Eve let Cassandra lead. Cassandra was slow and hesitant as she kissed her, but Eve could feel the underlying passion beneath the gentle brushes of her lips, so Eve took one more step forward and gathered Cassandra in her arms, silently telling her she was safe. Cassandra leaned back, separating their lips but keeping her eyes closed.

“You’re still protecting me,” Cassandra whispered, bringing her arms around Eve, too.

“It’s my job, Librarian,” Eve teased, matching her tone.

Cassandra chuckled slightly and leaned in for another kiss, letting her fingers find their way into Eve’s blonde hair.  It wasn’t long before Cassandra’s tongue licked at Eve’s lip. Eve smiled against her mouth – _She always learned so quickly_ – and deepened their kiss. She had intended to end this little argument by demanding the protection spell be removed right then and there, but as the sounds of Cassandra’s soft moan met her ears, Eve thought that could probably wait a little while.

 

Cassandra removed the protection spell, but not without protest and some childish eye rolling first. In response, Eve took Merlin’s spell book from her, deciding she needed a break from all the magic. The Clippings Book stayed pretty quiet, somehow granting Eve’s desire for some down time. When she realized she’d lost sight of Cassandra, Eve wandered through the aisles looking for her.

She found her in, where else, the magic section, ancient leather-bound book across her lap.

“What happened to a break from magic?” Eve asked, not even bothering with a greeting.

“Again, _you_ said,” Cassandra said. “ _You_ said we needed a break from magic. I don’t need a break.”

“But I took the…” Eve started.

“You don’t think Merlin has the _only_ spell book in _all_ the Library, do you?” Cassandra asked.

“Cassandra,” she started, taking a seat next to her.

“We use magic all the time,” Cassandra said. “We tell people we’re Librarians, and they let us do things, even if it makes no sense. We walk through doorways and end up all over the world. Why is wanting to know how that works wrong?”

“It’s not,” Eve said with a sigh. “I just don’t want you to become so blinded by the excitement of magic that you lose sight of the fact that it’s not all good. I don’t want you to forget that we save people _from_ magic.”

Cassandra’s face sobered, and, after taking a moment to think about Eve’s words, she nodded. “Fair enough.” Cassandra looked down at her spell book again and slowly closed it. She turned to Eve again and placed a quick kiss on her lips. “Can we use magic for something fun today?”

 “What?” she asked. Cassandra stood and held out her hand.

“A picnic lunch through the Garden Door, maybe?” Cassandra said. “We can eat under some big, pretty tree, and then, maybe, make out a little bit? That’s a good use of magic, right?”

Eve took her hand, playfully rolled her eyes, and said, “I guess I have to give you that one.”

 

The next particularly rough case came almost a full year after the protection spell mishap, and even though Eve returned battered and bruised, Cassandra was still hurt, too. Eve was lying in her bed wondering why the Library seemed to think that two people could handle _every_ bad, _every_ magical problem, alone when Cassandra walked into the room, her hair still damp from the bath she’d spent an hour soothing her aches in.

Eve instinctively moved over on the mattress. Sharing a bed wasn’t new for them; a hard case often ended in talking and cuddles and sweet kisses goodnight, and Eve wasn’t surprised when Cassandra sought her out.

“Are you alright?” Cassandra asked from across the bed, almost hesitant to climb in and risk hurting her. “The bruises look bad.”

“I’m okay,” Eve said, reaching for her.

She grabbed her arm and pulled Cassandra onto the bed, wrapping her arms around the younger woman. Cassandra let herself sink into her arms and buried her face in Eve’s hair, breathing in the lingering scent of Eve’s ocean-scented shampoo. After just a few moments in her Guardian’s embrace, Cassandra pulled away and held out her own arms.

“Turn around,” Cassandra said.

“What?” Eve said with a slight snicker.

“You always hold me,” Cassandra said. “Who cares if you’re half a foot taller? I can take care of you sometimes, too, and you’re hurt more than I am tonight.”

Eve laughed, cupped Cassandra’s face in her palm, and kissed her. They settled for lying on their sides, facing one another, hands linked between them.

“It looks like it hurts more than it does, Red,” Eve said. “I’m okay. How about you?”

“I’m okay, too,” Cassandra said quietly.

Cassandra looked troubled lying across from her, and Eve reached out with her free hand and caressed Cassandra’s cheek.

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” Eve asked.

“Nothing,” Cassandra said instinctively, shaking her head. “It’s just…I mean, I know it’s been two years, and this was our first _real_ brush with…possibility of death, so that’s great.”

“But…” Eve prompted.

“We’re not going to have each other very long, are we?” Cassandra asked, that heartbreaking tone returning to her voice.

“I don’t know, sweetie,” Eve replied softly. “It could be over tomorrow, or we could have another…ten, twenty years.”

“This job is scary,” Cassandra said.

“Sometimes, yeah,” Eve agreed.

“I know you’re scared of the magic that I do taking me away from you, but what if magic I can’t fight takes us away from each other?”

“That risk comes with the territory, I think,” Eve said.

Cassandra shook her head lightly against her pillow. She looked like she was about to cry, but instead, she let go of Eve’s hand and reached for her. Eve met her in the middle, their mouths crashing together in a passionate kiss. They shifted slowly together as they kissed, and one of Cassandra’s legs curled against Eve’s hip. Their hands wandered, something not so unusual when they kissed with that much passion, but soon, Eve felt nimble fingers loosening the buttons on her nightshirt. Despite the fact that Eve had been caressing the small of Cassandra’s bare back, her cotton nightgown bunched around her middle, she grabbed Cassandra’s hand.

“Cassandra,” Eve said softly.

“Are you too hurt?” Cassandra whispered back. She lightly kissed a scrape on Eve’s collarbone and whispered, “We can be gentle.”

“It’s not that,” Eve said. “We just haven’t gone this far before, and I want to make sure you’re not just acting out of fear here.”

Cassandra smiled before she cupped Eve’s face and leaned in for a tender kiss. She pulled back and raised her eyebrows at her Guardian, as if daring her to suggest she was just acting out of fear again. Eve shot her a look and grabbed her waist, pulling Cassandra back in.

 

Eve had begun thinking she needed to start being a little more careful. Cassandra had been telling her that for years, threatening her with more protection spells whenever she was seriously injured, but Eve had only just begun to think it herself. The world was getting darker, people were beginning to hurt, their job was getting harder, and while the sunshine still sparkled in Cassandra’s big blue eyes, her cheerful demeanor was beginning to fade. She wasn’t sure if the job was getting to her or if the simple state of the world was getting to her, but either way, it saddened Eve. She hadn’t been naïve enough to think the Library wouldn’t ever change Cassandra. Despite her personal suffering, she’d lived in a bit of a bubble before becoming the Librarian. Seeing the world for the first time through the eyes of having to constantly save it would harden anyone, but Cassandra was beginning to only be the bright, infectiously enthusiastic woman Eve fell in love with when they were alone. Eve hated the thought of her ever losing that spirit completely. She needed to start being more careful, she thought, before the light in Cassandra was extinguished forever.

 

Cassandra still studied magic, but she had surpassed simple spells long ago. It had taken a few years, but she had become so proficient in the craft, Eve often found herself dodging books headed for Cassandra’s hands as they wandered the Library, studying up on a case. A telekinetic Cassandra had worried her even more than just a Latin-speaking, spell casting Cassandra had worried her. Eve tried to voice her disapproval and encourage caution, but just as it had been when their journey together had begun, when it came to magic, Cassandra was going to do what Cassandra wanted to do. Her expertise in magic and its history had come in handy on more than a handful of occasions, but Eve still worried she was diving in too deeply.

 

She awoke late one night to Cassandra chanting Latin in the middle of the night. The clock read just a little before three, and Cassandra sat crossed-legged on the ground, surrounded by candles, her arms outstretched in front of her. A spell book rested in front of her crossed legs – _Merlin’s. She had eventually found where Eve had hidden it so many years before._ – and her body was covered in a silk robe, barely tied and falling off one of her pale shoulders.

Eve crept out of bed without Cassandra noticing and sat down behind her, a leg on either side of the younger woman’s body. She grasped her waist through the robe and kissed her exposed shoulder. Cassandra turned her head briefly to look at Eve with a small smile but turned right back to what she had been doing.

“What are you doing?” Eve asked.

“I’m trying to open a portal to another world,” Cassandra told her.  “Or…at least I’m trying to learn how.”

“You’re…” Eve started.

She didn’t even have to see the look of alarm on Eve’s face before she said, “I know you disapprove.”

“I was just going to question your choice to do it dressed like that,” Eve lied. Cassandra rolled her eyes and looked back at her.

“No, you weren’t,” she said, calling her out. “Besides, I’m not really expecting this to work on my first try.”

“Come back to bed,” Eve said, making sure her tone said ‘request’ instead of ‘command.’ Cassandra was still like that – telling her she couldn’t do something, especially where magic was concerned, only made her want to do it more. She’d have to try to provide a better alternative. They could bicker about this portal thing in the morning.

“In a few minutes,” Cassandra said.

Eve pulled Cassandra’s long red hair back, placed a long kiss on the side of her neck, and let her hand find its way between the barely-held-together sides of Cassandra’s robe to palm her breast. Cassandra finally let her arms fall as she leaned back into Eve, her lips falling open with a heavy breath.

“You’re distracting me,” Cassandra said matter-of-factly.

Eve chuckled against Cassandra’s neck as her hand drifted lower. Cassandra shuddered, and Eve whispered, “Is it working?”

Cassandra rolled her eyes before turning around and climbing in Eve’s lap. “You know it is,” she whispered in accusatory tone, bringing her in for a proper kiss.

 

Eve and Cassandra made a great team; that’s something Eve had always known. Despite their accomplishments, the world had gotten darker still, the land was becoming almost unrecognizable, the Library was under near constant threat of attack, people were really hurting now, and Cassandra was the one who could save them all. She used magic near flawlessly now, thanks to lessons from a sorceress that caused the only _real_ blow-up fight the women had ever had, and though Eve still worried about Cassandra’s ever-so-prominent use of magic, she was glad Cassandra spent so much time studying dragons just to spite her after that early mission, because the dragons had been awakened, and she needed that knowledge now.

Cassandra and Eve got up every morning and worked tirelessly to save as many people as they could, and the pride Eve felt for her little Librarian grew more with each passing day, but Cassandra was darker now, too. Eve couldn’t pinpoint when it happened, but she wasn’t the bubbly beauty that she was when she came to the Library. Every success brought a bit of her old enthusiasm to light, but her voice had somehow grown deeper; her clothes were darker, too, yet when it was just the two of them, Cassandra would magic some twinkle lights into existence above their bed in their darkened chambers, and they were still them, and nothing had changed.

As they lay tangled up together in the sheets of their shared bed, Eve stared at the magical lights twinkling above her and the sleeping Librarian. Magic had saved her, magic had changed her, and now magic seemed hell bent on destroying their world. But despite everything, the girl sleeping on her shoulder still wanted to see the good, still wanted to believe that magic would save them. The world needed Cassandra and her magic; Cassandra needed Eve and her skepticism, and with that, Eve thought, she had finally cracked the secret as to why the Library had chosen them both.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading :)


End file.
